2010 data warehouse appliance guide and special report

In this data warehouse appliance guide and special report, you'll find a roundup of data warehouse best practices and the latest news and trends in the data warehouse market, including new appliance technologies.

The data warehouse market is growing fast, and in particular there's been increased interest in data warehouse appliances — pre-packaged server and storage hardware bundled with analytic databases. The high level of interest in appliances is causing many data warehouse vendors to change their strategies and jostle for position in what is becoming a red-hot part of the warehousing market.

By submitting your personal information, you agree to receive emails regarding relevant products and special offers from TechTarget and its partners. You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

In this 2010 data warehouse appliance guide and special report, we've compiled informative articles, case studies, best-practices advice and reports on the latest data warehouse appliance trends and technology in the industry.

Last fall, Greenplum introduced a free single-node version of its massively parallel processing (MPP) data warehouse. The Greenplum Database Single-Node Edition lets users create and share small data marts, gratis. But it was designed primarily for data analysts who are "working on the fringes" of traditional data warehouse structures. Likewise, ParAccel is offering customers free software licensing if they switch from several competing data warehouse appliances to its MPP database. However, ParAccel's program, cheekily called "Cash for Clunkers," requires customers to sign up for a three-year software subscription, with only the first year free.

Whether the giveaways are examples of innovative marketing or mere gimmicks, , there lies a deeper meaning in them: the data warehouse market is getting more and more competitive, and data warehouse vendors are doing whatever they can to spur more interest in their products.

Previously, companies had to buy proprietary hardware from data warehouse vendors — increasing their overall costs. Now businesses often can use commodity servers made by the likes of IBM, HP and Sun (recently acquired by Oracle) to run data warehouses. For example, data warehouse vendor Netezza is supporting its latest appliance, called TwinFin, on IBM blade servers. "If you have a lot of blade servers, which normally a lot of people have because it's low cost and it's very good from a processing power perspective, you can just run the application on top of that," said Yankee Group analyst Arindam Banerjee.

Analysts warn, however, that data silos are still possible with Skimmer if precautions aren't taken and systems aren't architected correctly. Companies could "shoot themselves in the foot" with Skimmer, said Jim Kobielus, an analyst with Forrester Research. That isn't necessarily Netezza's fault, he added, putting the onus on customers and how they deploy the new appliance.

In order to keep data silos from popping up, Kobielus and others said, businesses need to make sure their departmental data warehouses and data marts are grabbing data from common sources with standardized definitions, metadata and data models. Chances of silos being created are slimmer if a company uses TwinFin as its enterprise data warehouse software, according to Kobielus. But even then, work needs to be done, he said. Despite Netezza's positioning, Kobielus thinks that Skimmer could be a viable option primarily for small and medium-sized companies.

Customer demand for faster analytic performance is pushing data warehouse vendors to add technologies such as in-database analytics and column architectures to their products. But at the same time, a growing desire for quicker and less costly deployments is helping to boost the popularity of bundled data warehouse appliances, Gartner said.

"The bottom line is [customers] want to call one person for support" when there is a problem with data warehouse performance, said Donald Feinberg, co-author of Gartner's report.

Despite this, data warehouse mega-vendors haven't felt a significant hit to their hold on the market, according to the report. That's partly because they've broadened the deployment options they support; for example, market leader Teradata now sells data warehouse appliances itself.

E-Handbook

0 comments

E-Mail

Username / Password

Password

By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy